Continuing our series of posts introducing the many speakers who will be giving talks during the LGBT History Festival at M Shed next February.

Terry Starr will be presenting Making Gaywaves – Community Radio for LGBT People in the West Country, as part of the Local History Day on Sunday, February 21st.

“ShoutOut” is the largest LGBT radio programme in the South West — in fact, it’s the only one. Currently broadcast over 5 different radio stations, the show has also given rise to several offshoots and created a facebook group for gay and trans radio activists co-operate with material and mutual support.

In this presentation, Terry Starr, who had the original idea for a gay radio show on community radio in Bristol, looks back at the long struggle for radio reform in the UK, with particular reference to the LGBT communities. Did you know that the first DJ to be out on the air was Tony Allan (1950-2004), who worked on the long standing offshore pirate station Radio Caroline? Or that “ShoutOut”‘s Andy Thomas ran the internet’s first regular radio station for gay men, in the late nineties? Terry will look at some of the factors leading to grass roots and community access broadcasting coming to the UK, and then at the experience of making “ShoutOut”, a show that has run since 2010. A little piece of social history, Terry will explain how the slogan of media reform activists, “Don’t Hate the Media, Become the Media” can empower LGBTQ+ communities to make their voices heard.